Code: Stu
by Phantaum
Summary: It seems as if time has reset itself, and we have returned to the place we once were. This place being Gary Stu going to Kadic Academy to fight the evil XANA! He meets some of the schools best-known people and befriends them. But what happens when XANA attacks without warning, calling them away? And what happens when Gary gets suspicious..?


Gary Stu wasn't nervous. He was never nervous when something new happened. After all, he was used to new things happening all of the time. He wasn't unfamiliar with the unknown. So when his grandmother decided that they would move to France to live with his aunt, he wasn't fazed by it.

The move was more of a surprise than anything else, considering that he was living a pretty normal life in the good ol' US of A just fine after his parents passed away due to a very tragic car accident. Since that day, he had been living with the only family around, who happened to be his elderly grandma. She mostly left him to his own things. He was content. Which is why this move was so sudden. He saw no reason for it and it, quite frankly, miffed him.

Of course since Gary was still just a teenager at the age of fourteen, he would have to attend school. Of course, by pure coincidence and not a deus ex machina, the only school available was the prestigious Kadic Academy. It was a boarding school with an average rating of 3.2 stars on Yelp. Seeing this, Gary's aunt and grandmother decided it would be best for their perfect boy.

On the other hand, Gary was not as enthused about the situation as his grandmother. If it was up to him, he'd rather be at home, eating Doritos and playing Call of Duty on the Xbox. He felt as if he did not need further education, as he would find no use for it when he eventually got that job as a Twitch Streamer he so sought. He gazed out of the window of his aunt's sedan at the passing building and light posts. Yeah, that would be the life.

His musings of an amazing life creating content on Twitch were cut short by his elderly grandmother, who was driving the car. "Get your stuff together Gary, we're nearly to Kadic." She peered back at Gary through the rear view mirror.

In response, Gary huffed and pushed his black bangs out of his eyes. "Why do I have to stay at some pompous boarding school again?" he asked while making sure his bags were secured.

"Because, this is your destiny!"

Gary did a double take. "What?"

"I mean, because this was the only school your aunt and I could find within city limits, oddly."

Gary shrugged at her odd behavior and attributed it to some form of late-onset Alzheimer's or something. In the meantime, he checked over his bags to make sure everything was in them. Socks, red and black boxers, vintage balisong, money, some other odds and ends, etc.

He finished his quick inspection just as the car was pulling up to Kadic, which is very convenient as five minutes of driving would have been extremely boring to both read and write. Gary's Grandmother pulled up to the gate of the school and parked the car. Gary, took this as an opportunity to escape his slowly-going-senile grandmother, and dashed out of the car.

Before he could get very far, his grandmother called out to him. "Be good Gary, and don't cause any trouble or fight any evil computer AI's that everyone thinks is a virus for some reason!"

Gary stopped to look back at his grandmother, but found that she had already pulled away from the school and was gone faster than water in the Sahara. He rolled his eyes and walked into the academy proper, prepared to go through the Hell that was school, all over again.

As he trekked the campus grounds, Gary was lost in thought. Things like "What is Beauty?" and "When is more gun necessary?" plagued his mind. He let his eyes drift around his surroundings, taking in the scenery. He observed the many people around, wearing various colors, and different types of clothes, all trying to either set their own trends, or follow the latest trends. Heck, he even saw a kid wearing all purple!

What truly caught his eye however, was a the most beautiful person he had ever seen. She was of Asian descent, with shining black hair that went down to her shoulders. She wore complete black, which included a crop-top black sweater, and a pair of black skinny jeans that ended in a pair of combat boots. She was lithe, strong, and ready to strike at any moment.

Gary was so enticed by her sight that he walked straight into the door to the dorms, knocking him from his thoughts. He rubbed the spot where his forehead met the door, and winced as his hand pushed on the tender skin. He pulled open the door with a sigh and walked through. Not even a day in and he's already making a fool of himself.

Sometime after organizing his stuff in his room, Gary walked out of the dorm building. He stood just outside the building and breathed a breath of fresh air. "Ah, fresh air," he sighed in satisfaction.

His nose picked up something on the breeze as he stood there; something meaty. He sniffed a few more times and looked around, wondering what that smell could be. Eventually, he traced it to a building that looked a bit like a trailer. Assuming it was some form of cafeteria, he decided it might be best to investigate it, and maybe eat something, as all of that jump-cutting was exhausting and hunger inducing.

He pushed open the door to the cafeteria, and was blasted by a wall of sound and something that smelled suspiciously like meat. He took in his new surroundings, letting the door close behind him. The room was pretty standard compared to the rest of the architecture of the school. It was just a rectangular room with a bland repeating checkerboard pattern. The roof was made of those common tiles that one would find in any building built within the last 30 years. Although, credit where it's due, at least the room had multiple bayview windows that let in an ample amount of light.

Many bland, white, rectangular tables were set up in a grid pattern, each one surrounded by a company of six generic orange chairs. Many of them were filled with other students, laughing, talking and discussing. On the far side of the cafeteria, was a serving bar with a tubular railing going opposite to it, most likely there to file students into an orderly line when receiving food.

Gary figured that this would be his starting point, then he'd figure out where he was going to sit after he had his food. So, he filed into line behind a girl with black hair and a pink shirt loudly discussing how someone named "Ulrich" was totally eying her to two other boys. Gary rolled his eyes at the shenanigans and grabbed a tray of meatballs with gravy and potatoes.

"You like meatballs too!?" came an excited voice from behind Gary prompting him to turn around to see who was shouting. Standing there was the purple clad boy with the eccentric hair style he saw earlier. He had a wide grin on his face, and was carrying a double tray of of meatballs with many other vegetables and sides dispersed throughout.

Gary smiled at the boy and responded. "Yeah, it's my favorite food!"

The boy's eyes glowed. "It's mine too! My name's Odd, who are you?"

"It's Gary, Gary Stu. I'm new here."

Gary didn't think it was possible, but Odd's smile grew a even wider. "You're new!? Oh I should totally show you to my friends!" Odd said, passing Gary and leading him out of the line, "They're over here, c'mon!" He briskly walked over to a table in the corner of the cafeteria, requiring Gary to power walk to keep up.

" _I guess that's the table situation situated,"_ he thought to himself with a chuckle.

Eventually, they reached the table everyone's attention came up to see the newcomers. When they saw Gary standing there with Odd, they went quiet.

Odd, noticing the tense atmosphere, cleared his thought to bring the table's attention onto himself. "Heya everyone, this here," he directed to Gary, "is Gary. He's new here and likes meatballs so I decided to take him under my wing and show him the ropes."

A brown haired boy wearing very olive dress rolled his eyes. "Sure Odd, the same way you showed Aelita how to deal with Sissi being Sissi?"

Odd looked hurt. "I did my best to be the best cousin for her, how can you fault me for that?"

The girl with pink hair that was wearing all pink giggled. "It was quite fun to see her reaction when she figured out I was the one who swapped her shampoo for hair dye."

"See!? Aelita turned out just fine! I'm perfect to show Gary around!" He took a seat next to the girl and patted an empty spot on the table directly next to him. "I promise they won't bite, Ulrich is just being a little ornery because Sissi is spreading rumors again."

Gary took this as his invitation to sit down. He waved slightly to everyone around there, however, only the pink haired girl, Aelita, waved back. He chuckled awkwardly and leaned over to Odd.

"Uhh, you should probably introduce me to your friends…" he whispered to Odd, who was just about to inhale a spoon full of potatoes.

"Oh right!" he responded, setting his spoon down. "Well Gary, this here is Aelita," He gestured to the girl, "that is Ulrich," he pointed across the table to the brunette boy, who waved at him with a "yo", "that's Jeremy," he pointed to a bespeckled, blonde haired boy wearing a blue sweater who was focused on a laptop that sat in front of him.

However, before he could finish, a new person sat down at the table, Gary turned his attention to her. Then his heart skipped a beat. There sat the beautiful girl he saw earlier, only this time he was able to see her absolutely beautiful face. It was framed perfectly by her bobcut hair. Her beautiful brown eyes sparkled with danger, but with a hint of compassion.

"Heya guys, who's this?" she asked, her heavenly voice blessing Gary's ears.

Odd was about to introduce him, but Gary cut him off. "I am, Gary Stu who would you happen to be?" he asked with a charming smile and a wink.

The girl blushed. "I'm Yumi, I take it you're new here?"

Ulrich groaned and got up from his seat. But before he could get very far, the girl that was talking loudly in line walked up to the table. "Oh hello~!" she sang, "how is everybody today?"

Ulrich sighed, cleary not happy with this girl. "We're fine Sissi, what do you want?" he asked sternly.

Sissi put a hand to her chest, feigning hurt, "Oh Ulrich, how could you say such things?"

Ulrich crossed his arms. "Because you're annoying and get on my nerves? Where are Herb and Nick?"

Sissi waved at him and smiled. "They're probably off doing something, but that's not important right now." She approached him with a sway in her hips. "What is important is you confessing your undying love for-"

However, she was cut off before she could finish by Gary, who coughed into his hand which caught everyone's attention, much to Sissi's distaste. "Uhh, hi uh- Sissi was it?" Gary started, tapping his fingers on the table, "I was just gonna ask if what you're doing here was ever gonna go anywhere or-"

Sissi hmmph'd. She walked to the table and put her hands on it, very annoyed with Gary's witty interruption. "And just who are you and why do you think you can interrupt me."

Gary looked around himself, pretending to look for who she was talking to, then back at Sissi. "Who? Me?" he responded, putting a hand to his chest, "I'm no one important. But you? You…" He chuckled to himself. "You are starting to get _very_ annoying. How's about you take your prissy attitude, shove it, go to your room, and cry yourself to sleep because no one loves you and never will!"

There was silence for a solid 6 seconds before Sissi started tearing up. "Oh, okay…" she whispered. She got off the table and walked towards the door. "You know where to find me if you need me, Ulrich." she said as she went by him. She pushed open the door and walked out.

"Wow, guess that's one way to deal with her," stated Odd in shock.

"Yeah, tell me about it," agreed Yumi. Sissi has always been a problem for her, but she's never resorted to something so harsh to get rid of her.

Before anyone could interrogate Gary for being so rude, Jeremy's laptop started beeping obnoxiously, getting everyone's attentions. Jeremy looked up from the computer and announced, "XANA's launched an attack." He then noticed Gary sitting next to Odd, and went wide-eyed, realizing the mistake he made.

Gary gave him an inquisitive look. "Who's XANA?"

Jeremy (end everyone else for that matter) winced. No one had a response for him, as they looked at eachother, praying that someone had a good lie to tell. Odd was the one who finally broke the tense silence.

"He's the… boss from a video game we play! Yeah!" he replied not-so-confidently.

Ulrich chipped in. "Yeah, that's it. So, we need to go fight him, and beat his…" His eyes flicked around. "Raid..?"

Yumi stood up abruptly from where she was sat. "So yeah, we gotta go! It was nice talking with you!" she said with a small smile. "C'mon guys, we gotta go!"

Everyone agreed with Yumi quickly, getting out of their seats and walked out of the cafeteria without delay. Well, except for Odd who was carrying his tray full of food out with him.

However, Gary found this odd, no pun intended. Why would they need to suddenly go do a raid in the middle of dinner? Why did they seem so uncertain about it? He was very suspicious of the group, so he decided to follow them. After putting his tray away respectfully, of course.

He followed the smell of meatballs through the campus, until he reached the edge of a forest. It was here he decided that maybe they were lying. But what were they lying about? He didn't know but he was going to find out. So, he trekked into the forest.

"HEY YOU!" Or he was going to trek into the forest, until he was interrupted but someone who sounded like they needed some Puffs, and badly. Gary spun on his heels and faced whoever was approaching, just to see someone who looked like a Jeremy rip-off, but with bad acne and wearing a green sweater.

Gary did his best to look very annoyed with whoever this was. "What?!"

The kid stopped in his tracks, and shied away from Gary. He looked as if he was regretting this choice already. However, it was only momentary as he stood straight up again. "How dare you insult Sissi like that?!" he demanded, a righteous vengeance in his eyes.

Gary rolled his eyes at the boy. "Can you not do this at another time?"

The boy scowled at him. "You made Sissi cry. When she cries, I get angry!" he yelled at Gary.

Gary raised an eyebrow. "Huh, I didn't think she'd go for acne ridden nerds, the more you know."

The boy took a step forward. "You take that back now!"

"What are you gonna do speks? Hit me?"

And the boy did just that. Except he didn't as Gary grabbed his fist mid-swing, and held it tight. Gary leaned in close to the boy and analyzed him. His eyes were pinpricks, staring at his hand that was caught. He was starting to sweat profusely, and his breathing increased.

"Now then," Gary started, causing the boy to look him in the eye, "this is what's going to happen: I'm gonna let you go, and we go our separate ways, and pretend none of this ever happened. Got me?"

The boy nodded quickly, and Gary let him go. He backed away from Gary only to stumble a bit, not once breaking eye contact with him. He turned around and made a mad dash to the school, whimpering all the way.

"Ah hell, he's gonna get me in trouble," Gary sniffed, then cringed, "but not before changing. Heh." With that, he turned and ran into the forest, hopeful that he would manage to catch Odd and his friends before they got too deep in.

A little while later, Gary came across Odd's food tray. It was casually discarded in a bush of the edge of the somewhat worn path. This gave Gary confidence that he was going the right way.

He grinned and prepared to move forward. Before he could, he heard a deep, scratchy growl from behind him. He turned quickly, and tensed up. Behind him, he saw a pack of dogs. In the pack were two German Shepherds, and a Black Lab being led by a tiny, bug-eyed, blonde chihuahua with a nasty snarl. Each of the dogs all showed various signs of neglect: missing fur with fleas jumping off of them, dirt on their coats, and/or smelling like garbage or feces. However, the weirdest thing about them all was how their eyes had no pupils, but instead a smaller, symbolic eye in its place.

Gary gulped nervously. He had a sinking feeling that these dogs were not normal dogs. Odds were that he wouldn't be able to outrun these hounds, and if he tried, they would catch him quickly. He slowed his breathing and steeled himself. He was going to have to fight, even though he probably wouldn't win. It was either that, or get run down and mauled.

So, he dove and grabbed the discarded tray. It was his only hope of being able to beat these dogs, as there would be nothing to increase his reach.

The dogs took this as a sign of aggression and with a loud howl, charged.

Gary reacted quickly, picking up the tray and swung it blindly. The chihuahua lunged for Gary, but was sideswiped mid-air by the tray and flung away from him with a yelp and into one of the Shepherds. This caused the Shepherd to stumble face first into the ground. This left just the other Shepherd and the Lab left for now.

The Lab leapt at Gary, who ducked just under its attack. He immediately shielded himself against the second Shepherd, which attempted to eat his face. Instead, it got a face full of metal for it's worries. Gary capitalized on this, and slammed the metal tray down HARD onto the animal's head, knocking it out cold with a whimper. This left three dogs.

"Nice try chucklenuts!" Gary taunted. He noticed that the Chihuahua and the first Shepherd managed to finally untangle themselves, and where approaching him slowly. Meanwhile, the Lab was growling, stalking him on his flank. The animals slowly backed Gary into a tree, essentially forcing him into a corner.

Gary got a morale boost from taking out the first dog, and felt confident in his ability to take out at least another one. With a loud bark, the Lab jumped again, with the Chihuahua going for Gary's throat. Again, Gary ducked under the Lab, which seemed to have forgotten about the tree. It hit the tree and slumped, the impact making it see stars. After ducking, Gary swang the tray upwards, hitting the Chihuahua into the air.

It came crashing back down into a thorn bush on Gary's left, where it started whine with pain. The final dog, a Shepherd. Stood in a prepared stance, ready to continue the fight. But a sharp look from Gary was all that was necessary to send it fleeing with its tail between his legs.

"That'll show you, mutts." he said, and dropped the tray on the ground. With the fight done and dusted, Gary turned around and continued down the trail, but now with a new confidence in his step. He felt like he could do anything!

Not much happened after that. He found an open manhole cover and followed some small wheel tracks down the sewer, before finding a ladder with some scooters and skateboards laying next to it. He climbed the ladder out of the sewer and onto a bridge leading to a massive factory on an island in the river. He figured if anywhere, they most likely went in there. So, he went into the factory.

He approached the edge of the broken staircase and looked down. The drop was at least a single story, as to be expected, and there seemed to be no way down, except for some conveniently placed ropes dangling from the ceiling. He sighed to himself, and jumped forwards, catching the rope and sliding down to the ground floor.

When his feet hit the ground, he hissed to himself and flicked his hands, in a hope that it would help with his rope burn. Unfortunately, it did nothing but make it sting more. He scolded himself for doing such a stupid thing. As he was doing that, the ancient elevator in this musty factory whirred to life, spooking him, He turned around and prepared himself for when it stopped, but nothing came of it. It sat there idly.

Figuring this would be his best lead, he called the elevator. It deafening whirring caused him to jump, and his anxiety to peak. He had a feeling the whatever Odd and his friends were doing, he would not be welcome. The elevator stopped, and the garage door opened, revealing the simple interior.

The boy sighed. "No backing out now." He stepped into the elevator, and pressed the button for the first basement. The shutter dropped slowly, then the lift descended. It eventually came to stop at a very fancy door with a multi-segmented lock that looked like it could withstand a bomb blast.

"NO! NOT YOU TOO ODD!" Gary heard Jeremy yell as the door opened. Gary saw Jeremy sitting in a brown chair suspended in front of a multi-monitor setup. Next to it was a holographic map of a weird place composed of floating island imbedded in the floor. The entire room was bathed in the light from the map, revealing the green steel that everything was made of.

Jeremy himself did not look very good. He was sweating profusely and had his face in his hands, on the verge of crying. On the screen showed a list of cards that were all greyed out, with one colored card that contained a portrait that looked a lot like Aelita.

"Aelita, you're all alone! There's no one left to help you!" he exclaimed, his voice wavering. He went quiet for a moment, listening to Aelita, then responded, "I can't! The others have yet to finish devirtualizing, and I don't want to lose them!"

Gary walked across the floor towards Jeremy, with a determined look on his face. He knew that whatever that was going, was important. Something about this all screamed "World Ending Bad" and Gary wasn't gonna stand by and watch as this all fell to pieces.

He placed a hand on Jeremy's shoulder, startling him and dragging his attention from the screen. "I can help, I promise," Gary stated, looking Jeremy in the eyes. Gary heard something about a "Scyphozoa" come from Jeremy's headset which caused his eyes to bulge. It looked like he was making a hard decision, but eventually came to conclusion.

"I found someone that can help! Just stay away until he can get there!" he exclaimed. He turned back to his computer and started typing quickly. "Go to the second basement and get into one of the pods. When you're there, say so."

Gary nodded and ran to the elevator without hesitation. He slammed his hand onto the 3rd button down, and tapped his foot as the door shut with a loud clang and the lift started up. Gary was nervous, realizing that whatever is happening, he just jumped headfirst into the deep end. He said he could help, and damn well he was going to, even if it killed him. Even though his nerves were high, he knew he had to try his very hardest, as people were counting on him. He would not let them down, never again!

With that, the elevator stopped and opened up to a room filled with pods that were bathing the entire room with an eerie, yellow glow. However, he had no time to admire, as this situation was dire. He dashed into the nearest tube and yelled up to the ceiling, "I'M READY!"

The speaker system in the room screeched to life and Jeremy's voice came over it. "I would offer you one last chance to back out, but you're our only hope," he said. Typing was heard over the speakers as the doors to the pod shut, blocking out the outside world.

All Gary could hear was his own breath. The silence was deafening, and it was not helping his anxiety. He had so many questions, so many wonders. However, he couldn't get and answer to any of them as there was simply no time. Who would have thought that some weird kid with a spikey hairdo would have this as a secret?

The whirring of the pod coming to life pulled him from his thoughts. He gulped. He knew that what was about to happen would change him forever. Air blew around the him, causing his black hair and his shirt to be pulled upwards from the current. Eventually, he felt himself become weightless, as the lights in the pod turned up. There was a sudden flash, before everything went to black.

When Gary came to, he was floating about 20 feet above a very bland, tan plateau. He could see nearly nothing of interest for miles. Nothing except for a tan pillar with a red aura surrounding it.

He then plummeted like a rock.

Fear gripped him as he felt the world whip around him, but when he hit that ground nothing besides him collapsing happened. He picked himself up off of the low resolution ground and brushed himself off.

He looked at his surrounding and remarked, "This looks a lot like a videogame."

"Yes, I know," Jeremy sighed. It sounded like he was talking through a headset to him. "I'm gonna spawn something that's a lot like a motorcycle, get on it, and get to that tower as fast as possible." Just as he said that, a one-wheeled, green motorcycle starting coming to form on Gary's left.

"RIght on!" he replied. He jumped onto the bike and revved the engine. With a mischievous smile, he put the bike to full throttle and felt it take off. Soon, he was flying across the desert, grinning like a madman.

His fun wouldn't last, as Jeremy's voice came from nowhere once more. "I pulled up your information and found that you wield some form of dual firearms." Typing was heard from him.

"Cool, how do I use them?" Gary asked. His destination was growing near. He could now see two cubes and four little robots firing at a rock just to the left of the white tower as a Jellyfish creature approached it.

"Reach down to your sides and imagine you're pulling them from their 'holsters'". After that, it should just come natural. Make sure you aim for the Eye symbol on their heads!"

Gary nodded as he accelerated. "Affirmative". He could hear laser fire now.

"Aelita is behind that rock, do something to get the monters' attention so she can get to the tower!" Jeremy all but shouted. Odds are he was getting extremely anxious.

"I have just the idea," Gary smirked. He stirred the bike onto a collision course with a cube and one of the small robots, then locked the accelerator. Just before he was close enough to be in danger, he jumped from the bike and did a flip in the air, pulling his dual pistols out of their "holsters". They looked a lot like Mauser handgun, except the barrel was longer, and the entire thing was jet black with red highlights.

The bike hit the first tiny robot without it noticing, instantly destroying it. The cube heard this and turned just in time to get the bike directly in its face, causing a massive explosion. Gary landed just outside the explosion's area of effect, silhouetting him against the bright flash. He stood up, and glared.

All of the commotion had its intended effect. The other cube and the robots all ceased firing, and moved their attention onto him, with the jellyfish stopped approaching the rock. With a smirk, Gary immediately locked onto the nearest robot and fired. His first few shots missed, but the fourth hit its mark, destroying the small robot.

At this aggression, everything started firing at Gary. He dodged and weaved around the shots like a pro, getting hit very rarely. Although he wasn't hitting many of his shots, he still served as an excellent distraction. Aelita poked her head out from behind the rock and saw that everything was firing at him, but something was wrong.

"Jeremy, where's the Scyphozoa?" Before he could respond, she was grabbed from behind by the very monster. It locked her in place and suspended in the air as it started reading her mind.

"GARY ! THE SCYPHOZOA CAPTURED AELITA!" Jeremy shouted, causing Gary to lose his footing and take a stumble. The last enemy, a cube, took this opportunity and fired. Thankfully for Gary, its aim was garbage and missed, allowing him the chance to land a direct hit on his stationary opponent.

"Take that you four faced bastard!" he taunted, blowing off his smoking gun.

"GARY, THE SCYPHOZOA!"

"Oh right!" Gary immediately started running towards the two. He fired blindly, hoping to hit the tiny eye on its front. The yellow lasers whizzed by the entranced Aelita, all missing.

"You're almost out of time!" Jeremy waled. Gary scowled in determination, and aimed. Time seemed to slow down for him as he lined up his shot, the shot that could make or break everything that he, hell, everyone here fought for. He breathed in, and the world went greyscale. He breathed out, and squeezed the trigger, sending an electrically charged bolt out of his weapon. The shot glowed like the sun, lighting up the world as it traveled. It felt like ages as it closed the distance. Growing closer and closer to its target.

And it landed, a direct hit on the Scyphozoa's tiny eye. The monster immediately dropped Aelita and flew backwards, covering its eye in pain. It didn't stop for a second as it fled from battle, having taken heavy damage from Gary's shot.

Gary himself panted hard and collapsed on the ground, his blasters falling near him. He stared up into the digital sky as he tried to recollect the thoughts that were threatening to crush him. Had he missed, it would have been game over. there was so much put on the line with that one bullet. Who knows what would have happened had he failed.

"Hey," came Aelita. She bent over Gary and looked him over now that they weren't in a life or death situation. His black shoulder length hair that fell around his head, glossy and well kept due to the virtual world. His piercing crimson eyes were covered by a pair of near clear goggles, were staring back at her. He had a black and dark red, form-fitting tank top on, paired with a pair of black pants. On his left shoulder was a metal-looking plate that reflected the virtual sun's rays, causing it to galre into her eyes. It was secured via a strap running along his chest.

He raised a black, gloved hand and waved. "Hey," he replied. His hand fell onto his panting chest as he gazed into the sky.

"I take it you're Jeremy's help?" she asked, walking around him.

He simply nodded.

She sat down next to him, crossing her legs and putting her hands on her knees. "I'm surprised he even let you come onto Lyoko. He's normally pretty tight-lipped about this whole thing."

Gary sat up, no longer feeling like he was going to die. "He must have been scared or desperate. I remember when he heard that you were being approached by that "Scyphozoa" thing, he looked like he was gonna break down."

"Really?" She leaned in closer, interested in what Gary had to say.

"Yeah. I think he was pretty freaked out about losing you," he said with a nod, "he screamed my ear off when you got captured."

Aelita contemplated this for a moment. Jeremy was never one to let his emotions get the best of him, except for whenever she was in…

If she could blush, she would. She never thought that Jeremy would fall for her, but guess not. She smiled to herself and stood up. "Huh," was all she said.

Gary followed soon after, and stretched himself out. "Guess you have some things to think about, but first, you need to deal with whatever is going on right now." He gestured to the activated tower, still glowing red.

She nodded. "Yeah... We're going to have to explain quite a few things to you, aren't we?"

Gary chuckled. "Yeah, you are."

"Right, see you in a couple of minutes then," Aelita finished, before running off towards the tower. She approached it, then phased into it, and out of sight.

After a few moments, he felt the weightlessness from before take ahold as he slowly disintegrated from this virtual world. All he could do was anticipate the upcoming conversation with the group, now that he knows their secret. This was gonna be stressful. 'I guess this is why you shouldn't go snooping.' he thought as the world went black once more.

The doors to the chamber hissed as air rushed back in. Once they finished opening, Gary stumbled out and started stumbling to the ground. However, someone caught him as he fell, and helped him back on his feet.

He looked for who was helping him and saw that it was Odd. He wore a proud smile as he patted Gary on his back. Gary looked around the room and noticed that he was back in the "pod room". Although this time, all of Odd's friends were here, with various looks on their faces. Jeremy looked anxious, Ulrich had a neutral expression, Yumi looked slightly irritated, and Aelita was smiling.

Gary shrugged Odd off and waved to the assembled group. "Hey guys, how's it going?"

No one responded, with no one really knowing how to handle this situation. Eventually, it was Jeremy who broke the silence, with an exasperated sigh. He walked forward with his head down and his hands folded together.

"I am so, so sorry for getting you roped into this Gary," he started. He looked up to Gary. "I did not mean for any of this to happen, it was all my fault."

Gary looked around the room awkwardly, looking for help. None came, so he did what he felt was best. He reached out Jeremy and patted him on the shoulder, and gently shushed him. "You did nothing wrong Jeremy," he comforted, "You did what you had to do to save your friends. It should be me apologizing for being so snoopy and following you all here."

"NO WAY MAN!" Odd interjected, "If it wasn't for you, XANA would have captured Aelita and won!"

"Yeah, we should be thanking you." came Yumi.

Ulrich inspected Gary and nodded. "I agree with Yumi, as much as I hate to admit it."

Gary looked around at everyone there, surprised at such a positive reception. He did not expect them to be so welcoming to him, that's for sure.

Aelita stepped next to Jeremy and smiled. "Thank you for saving me Gary. I was so close to losing everything." She next turned to Jeremy. "And thank you Jeremy, for trusting Gary. If it weren't for your judgement, I wouldn't be able to remember you." She then reached up and pecked him on the cheek, and hugged him, causing him to blush furiously, while everyone one else let out a round of "aww"'s.

Odd stood up to his full height and threw his arms out, nearly knocking Gary out. "How about we all go get something to eat to celebrate our newest Lyoko Warrior!?"

Everyone yeah'd at that and started walking to the elevator, besides Jeremy, who stood their stock still.

"Are you coming Jeremy?" asked Aelita. Jeremy let out a loud "YEAH!", did an immediate about face, and ran into the elevator with a smile that was as large as his face, eliciting a laugh from everyone there.

* * *

Hello everyone! As you can probably tell, this was yet another low quality shit post. It was meant to be a somewhat more serious rewrite of Code: The Author Knows How to Photocopy, but turned into this instead. So this is what I worked with.

At a solid 6k words it is my longest single chapter to date. I would like to say it's okay, even though I know it's much worse. There's poor flow in some of the degments and the jumpcuts are a bit jarring. Add to that a weak ending and you have a sub-par story. But I'm okay with that, as this was something I wanted to get done. Now that this is finished, I can focus on other things, such as improving Wit and Perserverence or finishing thay no da wae. I think I'm gonna do the latter first, though.

With that all said and done, chao.


End file.
